Twin Thoughts
by Leila Data
Summary: Leila and Shilom never met in person - until they wake up in an asylum. While trying to figure out why they are there, help arrives in the form of their fictional husbands.


Inspired by my twin, Shilom. This was originally written for a contest.

O O O

They woke up in a windowless room. It was padded from floor to ceiling, like a room you'd find in an asylum. The only door had a single slot, big enough for a tray of food or one to peer in. How had they gotten here?

The two young women opened their eyes and looked around. They were silent at first, as though speaking would cause the walls to come crashing down around them. Finally, one of them spoke. "Where are we?"

The other shook her head, then looked at her companion. She was surprised to see that the stranger resembled her. "Who are you?"

The woman turned to her in surprise, also appearing to notice their resemblance. "Leila." She stuck out her hand. "And you?"

The other woman grinned as she realized who the woman was. "Shilom. Pleasure to meet you, my twin."

Leila's face lit up. "No way!" Shilom was knocked backwards in a bear hug. The two laughed brightly as they thought about how they had finally met in person.

"I can't believe you actually look like me," Shilom said when the laughter died down.

"What did you expect? We're twins!" Leila said with a grin. Shilom laughed again. Then Leila looked around. "So…where are we?"

The smiles faded from the twins' faces as they once again looked around their padded prison. "Looks like an insane asylum," Shilom said.

"I hope you don't know from personal experience." Though Leila gave no outward indication that this was meant as a joke, Shilom knew, likely because of the 'twin thing.' "But assuming you're right, what are _we_ doing here?" Leila crossed her arms indignantly. "I am _not_ insane!" Glancing at Shilom, she quickly added, "And neither are you!"

"Apparently someone disagrees," Shilom said bitterly. She shivered, suddenly realizing that the room was quite cold. Leila, on the other hand, seemed perfectly happy with the temperature. "Aren't you cold?" Shilom asked, though she remembered Leila's rather strange fondness for cold weather.

Leila shrugged. "It's a little cooler than I'd like, I suppose, but not too bad." The two FanLib friends were completely silent for a while, something that neither ever was while online.

"You'd think that someone would introduce themselves or something…" Shilom said, finally breaking the silence.

"Or bring us food," Leila added, putting a hand on her stomach. "I'm hungry!"

As though on cue, footsteps sounded from outside, and a tray began sliding through the slot in the door. Leila was immediately by the door, eagerly taking the tray, but also attempting to peer out the slot at whoever was feeding them. Footsteps sounded again, fading away.

Leila set down the tray, and the two looked at its contents: juice boxes, cheese sandwiches, and Fruit Roll-Ups. "I feel like I'm in elementary school," Shilom said, taking one of the juice boxes and punching the straw through the top.

"This is better than elementary school," Leila said, leaning back against a padded wall and taking a bite from one of the sandwiches. "The food, at least," she pointed out, looking around the padded room. "So, why do you think we're here?" she said, punching a hole through the top of her own juice box.

Shilom shrugged. "No idea."

Leila frowned, suddenly feeling as though the room had warmed up. She also smelled the ocean. "Do you smell that?"

Shilom sniffed the air. "Were you drinking before you got here?"

"Drinking?" Leila asked in surprise. "I smell the sea."

Shilom's brow furrowed. "I smell…rum," she said in disbelief. "I'm sure of it." She sniffed at the juice box.

"Mmm." Leila leaned forward to pick up a Fruit Roll-Up. "That's odd." She leaned back again, but realized that she wasn't leaning against a wall. Given a small yelp of shock, she whipped around, and laid eyes on a man in a worn Royal Navy uniform, with wavy brown hair pulled back behind his head. "Impossible," she said, flushing as she recognized the man as no other than James Norrington.

"Hello, love," he said quietly, making Leila grin and blush even more.

At this same time, Shilom was having a similar revelation about a man who seemed to appear from nowhere behind her. Dreadlocks, hat, pistol, soulful eyes and all, Captain Jack Sparrow was leaning casually against the wall behind her. Shilom drank in the sexy man before her with her eyes.

Leila and Shilom both turned to look at each other, each seeing the other men over their twin's shoulder as well. "What—?" Leila gasped, turning back to James, who smiled softly at her. "I think I know why we're in an asylum now," she muttered under her breath.

"You should be happy to see us," James said, appearing slightly hurt.

Leila smiled broadly. "You can be sure we are," she said, sitting next to the man of her dreams, who wrapped an arm about her waist and pulled her closer to lean against his chest. Shilom was still too surprised to do anything, but Jack made up for that by moving to be next to her, wrapping one of his arms about her shoulders. Shilom had no problem with that.

"We can help get you out of here, savvy?" Jack said. Leila and Shilom exchanged a look.

"Can you?" Leila asked, looking up at James.

"Now what sort of husbands would we be if we let the two of you rot in this…place," Jack said, gazing around the room, unable to come up with the proper name for it.

"They have a point," Leila said, now examining James' hand, which did indeed bear a wedding ring, just as Leila's own hand now did. She blushed again as James moved to kiss her neck, though she did tilt her head to give him better access.

"Now don't get too mushy," Shilom said. "You aren't alone!"

"We could pretend to be, love," Jack said, suddenly capturing Shilom's lips in his. Shilom's cheeks darkened even more than Leila's had so far, but she eagerly and passionately returned the kiss. However, she broke quickly away as she heard Leila giggling.

"We should be focused on escape," James said. Leila appeared disappointed that James had not attempted to kiss her on the lips, but said nothing.

"And how are we to do that?" Shilom asked.

Jack raised an eyebrow. "The same way you got us here," he said as though it was the most obvious thing in the world.

Leila and Shilom exchanged a confused look. "Which is?" Leila asked, looking up at James.

"Why don't you just say what you mean?" James asked Jack. "Everything that comes from your mouth is either a nonsense statement or a lie."

"Not true!" Jack replied. "I tell the truth the lot."

"Yet people are always surprised," Leila muttered with a grin.

"And there's good reason for it," James said coldly.

Shilom looked from Jack to James and back again. "I half-expected Will to pop up and finish that one." The two women laughed, but quickly silenced when they noticed the death glare that the two men were sharing.

"Guys, you should get along," Leila said.

"You are related, you know," Shilom added, winking at her twin.

"And this isn't helping us get out," Leila continued, interrupting as both men opened their mouths again.

"She has a point," James said.

"So…to get out?" Shilom prompted. Leila looked expectantly at James.

"You imagined yourself here in the first place," said James. "And in your heart, you believed that Sparrow and I were real."

"What he said," Jack randomly interjected.

"I blame your contest for getting us into this, Shilom," Leila said. Once again, she had a perfectly straight face, until both twins suddenly burst out laughing.

"I understand," Shilom said. "Talk to you soon?"

Leila smiled and nodded. "See you on FanLib."

Shilom sat in front of her computer screen and looked around, sadly realizing that Jack was gone. _"Of course he can't exist in the real world,"_ Shilom thought. She clicked on the posts action thread and typed:

_"waves"_

_"asks Leila if she's all right"_

Shilom hit submit and waited. No one answered. Looking at the time, she saw that it was two in the morning. But surely Leila would answer. A few minutes later, an answer came:

_"waves"_

_"is wonderful"_

_"hugs James"_

_"kisses James"_

_"(is not kidding ;) )"_

"Hello, love." Shilom jumped as a man wrapped his arms around her and kissed her neck. Shilom smiled as she smelled rum.

_"thinks that our imaginations are far too powerful"_ Shilom wrote.

Leila read Shilom's last message and laughed as she typed:

_"laughs"_

_"certainly doesn't mind"_

_"wishes Shilom Sparrow goodnight!"_

_"grins"_

Leila laughed even harder as she saw a post that Shilom had submitted at the same time as Leila's last message:

_"wishes Leila Norrington a goodnight!"_

_"grins"_

Leila smiled. "We are _so_ twins."


End file.
